Voacanga.] lxxxiv. apocynace^ (staff). 151 



27. VOACANGA, Thouars, Nov. Gen. Madag. 10. 



Calyx tubular or subcampanulate, 5-lobed, early circumsci.^sile at the 

 base and deciduous, or more persistent, tardily circumscissile or splitting 

 longitudinally, with k ring or zone of, often numerous, small glands at 

 or above the base ; lobes obtuse, imbricate. Corolla salver-shaped ; 

 tube staminiferous above the middle, constricted below the stamens and 

 at the mouth, with callous thickenings round the often very narrow 

 orifice, more or less twisted from left to right, very rarely straight, 

 with prominent filamental ridges; lobes broad, obtuse, as long as 

 or longer than the tube and more or less spreading, rarely much 

 shorter and tightly reflexed, tips not inflexed in bud. Anthers sessile, 

 adnate by a broad base to the corolla-tube, deeply sagittate ; tips subu- 

 late, usually more or less exserted, or reaching close to the mouth ; 

 basal tails horny, slender, solid. Disc usually annular, very fleshy, 

 surrounding the base of the ovary, or cupular and concealing the 

 ovary, very rarely reduced to an inconspicuous ring, more or less con- 

 fluent with the base of the ovary. Carpels 2, semi-ovoid or semi-glo- 

 bose, free, very rarely connate to the middle ; style columnar, thickened 

 upwards; stigma subcapitate, 5-grooved with a fleshy wavy ring or 

 frill at the base ; ovules multiseriate, very numerous on bifid placentas. 

 Mericarps baccate, globose or pear-shaped, more or less oblique, some- 

 times with short, recurved beaks, sometimes very tardily dehiscing 

 along the ventral suture; pericarp thick and fleshy or thinner and 

 coriaceous when dry. Seeds numerous, embedded in a pulpy mass, 

 oblong-ellipsoid, deeply grooved ventrally ; testa crustaceous, more or 

 less grooved longitudinally, often coarsely honeycombed by transverse 

 partitions across the grooves, more or less intruding into the endosperm ; 

 endosperm fleshy ; cotyledons foliaceous, thin, ventrally concave, shorter 

 than the radicle. — Shrubs or trees, dichotomously branched ; leaf-buds 

 sometimes coated with resin. Leaves opposite, herbaceous to coriaceous ; 

 axillary stipules distinct, like those of Conopharyngia (in the first two 

 species) or quite obscure or ; leaf -bases united into a rim or very short 

 sheath ; axillary glands small, numerous. Flowers large to rather small, 

 in terminal, frequently paired, peduncled, racemiform, umbelliform or 

 corymbose inflorescences, usually from the young branch-forks. Corollas 

 white, yellow or greenish, or the limb violet-brown. — TaberncvmonUinay 

 Benth. et Hook. f. Gen. PI. ii. TOG partly. 



Species 12 in tropical Africa, Natal, and the Mascarene Islands, nnd about 4 in 

 the Malay Archipelago. 



This description excludes those Malayan species, referred to I'oacanfja by recent 

 authors, which have the corolla-tube much prolonged beyond the stamens. They 

 might better be joined to the genus Orchipeda, under which some of them were 

 originally described by Blume. 



Flowers large (limb 2 in. or more in diam.), white, in 



few-flowered, racemiform or umbelliform, very 



robust inflorescences ; calyx wide-tubular ; lobes 



short, early circumscissile ; disc cupular, exci-eding 



the ovary. 



